#flathal #flatstanleyproject #hongkong #macau
Next Tour: Macau (1 hour ferry ride away)
Hong Kong and Macau have some very important things in common. They are both listed as SAR China. Special Administrative Region. This is a mouthful of words that means nearly 30 years ago they returned to China’s control from the countries that had held them as colonies, but they returned under special rules!
They are part of China (1 Country) but things are different in these places (2 Systems).
For over 400 years Macau was a Portuguese Colony. Until 1999 Portugal ruled this land but the people were just like those who lived a few miles away, in China.
Portuguese is still one of the official languages, but only 1% of the people speak the language.
The Flat Friends had just 10 hours to explore. That included time for the high speed ferry to Macau — 1 hour, each way. Of our remaining 8 hours, an hour and a half was lunch at the revolving restaurant on top of the Macau Tower. The restaurant slowly turns, and over the course of 1 hour we saw all 360 degrees of the view over Macau! While “on the ground” we saw the ruins of St. Paul’s, a more modern Catholic Church, and a Buddhist Temple blessing those who travel by water—like us!
Macau has a population of just over 700,000 people. Maybe that is good, because it is a relatively small place—33.4 square kilometers (12.9 sq. miles)!
The Flat Friends had a chance to see a lot of Macau during our brief visit.
Jorge Alvares was a Portuguese navigator, finding his way across the sea in 1513, when Macau first became a colony. Seeing his statue felt like a beginning to a period the Golden Lotus celebrates the end of—Macau’s 1999 return to China.
The Flat Friends will share more about Macau in our next post.
